The Music Of The Sea

Sing, sing, oh sea!
Sing thy hush-song to the shores.
Sing, sing, sing, oh seat
Lift thy waves as emerald tongues,
Singing golden songs beneath the sun!
Sing, sing, sing, oh sea!
Make thy great throat speak
Thy heavy bosom's utterance!
Sing, sing, sing, oh sea!
Thy shores embrace thee,
Listening, listening, listening,
Through ages they have listened,
Growing older and more gaunt;
And thy singing doth rebuild
Their shrunken forms anew.
Each tide deposits new beauty;
Rifts of coral, silver, slipping sands
Bejewelled of roseate shells,
Each holding a new song
Which thy unloosing brought forth-
Little dead echoes, hidden like prisoners
Within the pits of empty shells.
Sing, sing the ghosts of songs!
Songs, which ancient mariners sung;
Songs of mermaids wasted long,
And hanging there like seaweed on the rifts
Along thy craggy shore-
Songs the hopeful fishers sang;
Yea, songs of despair which left dead lips
When thy arms encircled them.
Sing, sing, sing, oh sea!
Sing on, for thy tongue is the tongue of ages,
Wagging, wagging, wagging wisdom;
Wisdom which is washed within thy waters,
And aged through time.
Sing, sing, oh sea, for thy shores are listening!